Naming findable folders on a network

My users connect to a “main” machine for their shared data. One user runs from the main machine. I want all to have access to a folder that could be on any of the office machines (including the main, the user machines, or others). The folder can be designated by any of the machines, and its location will be stored in an encrypted dbf character field for all to see. The address will be different though for different machines. For the user (John) whose machine holds the folder, it’s at C:\stuff\thefolder. For a different user it’s at \\John\c\stuff\thefolder. For a different user that uses a mapped drive, it could be G:\stuff\thefolder or G:\c\stuff\thefolder.

One application is for keeping a “do-you-exist” file to be found before the system will run (a security thing if the main computer is stolen), and the other is for keeping a folder for each client that batches of invoice pdf’s can be stored in for emailing by one or more of the other users.

I’ve been working on an elaborate system of figuring out from the stored path, if it’s on “my” machine and to use the local naming convention, or on a different machine … and what should be used in that case, but I thought … surely someone else has bumped into this by now. Any thoughts on the best approach of storing and retrieving the folder's location?

Bob